Association Of Catholic Bloggers

It’s almost time to celebrate Jesus’ birthday! Christmas is almost here! I want to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! If you are traveling, safe travels. As we close out 2016, and look forward, with hope, to 2017, I want to share with you one of my favorite Christmas carols, performed by the late Bing Crosby and the late David Bowie. It’s called, Little Drummer Boy. The message of the song is that one little child “can give all the love he can.” Enjoy the video, then read my comments below on how we can take this message and bring it to life this Christmas season. Read more...

Dear Readers, With Advent rushing by and Christmas just around the corner, I've also decided to start a series of Christmas movie reviews. I'm kicking my reviews off with one of my family's favorites:  Miracle on 34th Street  (1994). Yes, this is a remake of an older, even more beloved 1947 George Seaton film. Les Mayfield is the director here, and I'm not sure if Mayfield or his cinematographer is to be credited for the film's glossy beauty, but it certainly fits a film with the word 'Miracle' in the title. The production is led by a trio strong adult actors, Elizabeth Perkins, Richard Attenborough and Dylan McDermott, and anchored by a gifted youngster, Mara Wilson. The plot's summary is thus: A lonely, albeit well-off, single mother Mrs. Walker (Perkins) and sweet daughter Susan (Wilson) find some much-needed Christmas cheer when Kris Kringle (Attenborough) arrives to save the day at a flagship 34th Street store. Christmas charm sweeps through the cit

‘Silence is so lacking in this world which is often too noisy, which is not favorable to recollection and listening to the voice of God. In this time of preparation for Christmas, let us cultivate interior recollection, so as to receive and keep Jesus in our lives.’ Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI    (from The Cloistered Heart)

A wonderful Christmas story to share by the Christmas tree with family and friends. A story you will never forget. PLEASE CLICK HERE

Here's a chatty little look at our Advent plans.  They may not be elaborate but they are helping to point us to Christmas and the sweet celebration of the Christ Child's birth. Read more at Veils and Vocations .

I really like to shop from local and small businesses. There is something about knowing the person who made what you are buying that is so gratifying.  Every year I try to highlight a few of my favorite businesses to introduce you to their products and give my favorite vendors a bit of free publicity. This year I am focusing on Catholic vendors. The wonder of the internet is that "local" takes on a new meaning.  I can purchase items from across the country or around the world and still build up a relationship with the vendor. Many have become special friends, as well.  So please indulge me as I present my picks for this year! Find out more on Veils and Vocations !

For those of you who start Christmas shopping really early, here is a post of some practical but fun gift ideas! "I know it is very early for Christmas for most of you, but as I have shared before, I try to avoid shopping during Advent.  Autumn is an extremely busy time with birthdays, back to school, and getting ready for winter around here.  Therefore, I start my shopping around now and try to finish up by the end of August.  There are always those little things that need to be purchased last minute, for those I know exactly what I am buying and where to get it, to make the last minute shopping as painless as possible.  My children have gotten so used to me Christmasing in July that they have already proposed gift ideas--aren't they lovely. :)" Click over to Veils and Vocations for more.

(from The Cloistered Heart)

(From Silar, Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.) (Nativity scene at the Christ the King Church in Sanok , Poland, 2010.) Shepherding is a comparatively new occupation, compared to hunting and knapping . The earliest evidence we've found so far puts the first shepherds north of Sargon 's Akkadian Empire , where the Hittite Kingdom was, a dozen or so centuries later. I've mentioned them before. ( August 21, 2015 ; October 16, 2015 ) That was about the time someone carved a bit of siltstone into the Narmer Palette , and folks started building Stonehenge ; and that's another topic. Around the time Emperor Ping died, leaving Wang Mang in charge — he was either a great reformer or conniving scoundrel, depending on who you read, and that's yet another topic — the Roman Emperor ordered an empire-wide census. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

16 Catholic ebooks are on sale today through Monday. $.99 or free each. Great authors. Fiction and non-fiction. Visit Indie Catholic Authors' blog for details and buy links. Merry Christmas!

As I clean and get ready for our adult children to come home from university and work in the city, it is nice to remember the magic of Christmases when they were little. In fact, the scent of magic is still in the air, especially as our  five grandchildren join our family! When you live with nine children, even the most crusty curmudgeon cannot resist the magic of Christmas. continue

The headlines on the news scream disaster, struggle, violence, and hatred.  The world stage is filled with uncertainty and anxiety about the future. Innocent people are slaughtered mercilessly; politicians rage at each other, and even the church seems filled with discord and division. Temptations to fear and despair close in from every side.  This Christmas, I find that it is the hauntingly beautiful ancient hymn "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence" that whispers peace and comfort into my anxious heart. Read my reflections here...    

Last winter Pope Francis visited the Roman parish of St. Joseph. One of his remarks there was eagerly snatched up by social media: "Babies cry, make noise, go here and there. But it annoys me when a baby cries in church and there are those who say he needs to go out. The cry of a baby is God's voice: never drive them away from the church!" ©Johanna Goodyear/Getty Images Being a mother of five children, I've had my share of those who say my baby "needs to go out." A friend of mine was once asked to leave with her baby--by the priest, during his homily! And sure enough, there are times when an inconsolable child needs a change of scenery so other churchgoers can have a little peace. But children belong in church. Let's bring them on Christmas, the day when God's voice actually became the cry of a baby. Let's bring our older children too, who, crying in their pre-adult way, sometimes protest having to go to church. Let's bring our children t

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” With these memorable words, Charles Dickens has captured the sentiment of every enthusiastic Catholic evangelist regarding Christmas. On the one hand, Christmas is an evangelist’s dream – a time of joy and hope , with an abundance of opportunities to share the good news of Jesus Christ with a weary world. On the other hand, Christmas can be an evangelist’s worst nightmare – a time of stress and struggle, when it seems like the world in general and the people around one’s own dining room table in particular, are indifferent or openly hostile to all things related to Christ. Click here  to read seven simple tips for sharing Christ this Christmas with your family, friends, co-worers and even the guy who just cut you off in the parking lot on the way to Midnight Mass.

It's a bad time of year to be hurting.  Not that there is a good time for pain, of course, but the weeks around Christmas and New Year's can be particularly poignant for some. I suspect many of us have had such seasons. Times when we can't be with loved ones, or a relative or close friend has died, or we've suffered a miscarriage, or we're sick, or we've lost our job, or there is illness in the family.  Even the time of year can make us feel blue.  Here in the northern hemisphere, night falls early in these months of bleak midwinter. We may be struggling to adjust to the long, long, long dark. For anyone reading this who is sad, in pain, or maybe just wishing the holidays would be over and gone - know that you're not alone. In fact, you are so 'not alone' that I'm going to ask a favor of everyone reading this..... (continue)

Today's first Bible reading doesn't include the last part of Micah 5:4.... ...I'm guessing that's because we see these verses mostly as they relate to our Lord's birth, about seven centuries later. Folks in Micah's day had more immediate concerns: " 3 he shall be peace. If Assyria invades our country and treads upon our land, We shall raise against it seven shepherds, eight men of royal rank; " 4 And they shall tend the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod with the drawn sword; And we shall be delivered from Assyria, if it invades our land and treads upon our borders. " ( Micah 5:4 - 5 ) Micah lived around Isaiah 's time, a bit over 27 centuries back. Assyria's leaders were trying to unite the (western) world into a single empire, and succeeding: for the moment.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

O Holy Night is my favorite Christmas Carol. The lyrics are rich in meaning and so many of them have provided much thought for meditation and spiritual journaling. Here are five facts, images and inspirations from the song. Read more here...

Immaculate Heart of Mary - CHRISTMASTIME by Mark Knobil (2007) via  FLICKR , CC Feeling conflicted about navigating the sudden CROWDS at church this Christmas? Thinking about coming to church for the first time in a while? Be not afraid! There's room for everyone. Today's post continues the series on what happens in the liturgy, and why we're all essential to what happens there. "Keep Your Fork!" Join me at Praying with Grace !

"The traditional Christmas tree is a very ancient custom which exalts the value of life, as in winter the evergreen becomes a sign of undying life...." (continue)

Sometimes the activities of Advent and Christmas can feel like an intrusion. Day to day life is more or less put on hold by an urgent need to shop and wrap and plan. Chairs and tables are displaced by, of all things, a tree in the middle of our house.  There is no time to do ordinary things, as everyday life is seriously disrupted for weeks on end. It can seem like a major interruption.   A few years ago, the truth of it hit me. This is what Christmas has been since the instant of the Incarnation: an interruption. Please stay with me here, because our first reaction to the word “interruption” could be negative.  But interruptions are often quite positive, and this Interruption was the most positive of them all.... (continue...)